


(Don't Leave Me) Alone Here

by SophiaCatherine



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Angst, F/F, Hopeful Ending, past Westallen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:20:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23069119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophiaCatherine/pseuds/SophiaCatherine
Summary: Displaced in time to 2042, Zari Tarazi and her brotherrun inon Iris West in her bunker. Iris just wants to get them both out of the dystopian hell she lives in, before someone else gets hurt. Zari has a different plan.
Relationships: Zari Tomaz/Iris West
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14
Collections: FS Femslash Week 2020





	(Don't Leave Me) Alone Here

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Flarrowverse Shipyard Femslash Week. Really this is short enough that I could have put it in my [collected Flash ficlets](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14907050/chapters/34527974), but I wanted to have one to add to the Flarrowverse Shipyard collection for the event. And there should be more stand-alone hackernews fics in general!
> 
> Zari here is inspired mostly by season 5 Zari Tarazi, but a bit OOC to account for alternate universe timelines.

The wind whipped up out of nowhere, sending the stack of papers by the computer flying in all directions. “Shit,” Iris muttered, reaching for the totem around her wrist, on instinct - even though she didn’t think that was her doing. **  
**

And then she was on her feet. There was a woman flickering around her bunker in a _zip, zip, zip_ of purple lightning. Somehow she’d bypassed all the security Iris had programmed herself. With her was a man who looked a lot less excited to be there.

“See, Behrad?” the woman said, her tone gleeful. “I told you I could phase you through things!”

“How the hell did you two get in here?” Iris demanded. She was already raising a hand, preparing to unleash a hurricane on the strangers if she had to. And she always had to.

The woman - sleek, dark hair, kind of hot - beamed at Iris. She did that maddening flashy lightning thing again, appearing by the desk. “Hi,” she said. 

Iris sighed and started picking up half her stack of papers again. “And could you _stop_ that?”

“Sorry.” The woman held out a hand. Iris ignored it. “Zari Tarazi. I’m the Flash. And _this_ —” she rolled her eyes, pointing a thumb behind her— “is Behrad.” 

“No, _I'm_ the Flash,” said the guy behind her in the flannel shirt, who was somehow managing to act too cool for school in a warehouse in a dystopian state. “My sister here has just stolen my powers.” He shot Iris an apologetic smile. “Weird accident. We’re just trying to transfer her powers back to me. Sorry to have… run in on you. We were going pretty fast trying to get home.” He reached out for his sister, apparently trying to bustle her out of there.

"You're the _what?"_ Iris tried to ask.

But the woman - Zari, was it? - was ignoring Iris, flashing off in another crackle of lightning to glare at her brother. “We haven’t really settled that yet though, have we, Behrad? Maybe this is the multiverse’s gift to me!” Turning back to Iris, she grinned with far more delight than Iris could stomach, in this wretched place. She did have a nice smile, though - even if she was a little too excitable. “We were experimenting, seeing if Behrad here could time travel and take me with him. By the time we got here, I somehow had his speedster powers, and we were stuck here."

Zari's enthused stream of chatter was... almost cute, but there were quite a lot of words in that torrent of ideas that made no sense at all. Iris made a mental note to look up _speedster_ and _multiverse_ later. There were probably messageboards out there full of guys showing off their extensive knowledge of both topics.

Behrad glared back at his sister - and, wow, Iris should have realised they were siblings. That was exactly how she looked at Wally. Or it was, before she persuaded him and her dad to go far, far away from this hellhole.

_Don’t think._

The still-locked door caught her attention again, and she strode towards it. “Would one of you tell me how you got in here? Because if you made it in, ARGUS can, too…” She reached for the panel on the wall, checking the programming. The code looked fine, but that couldn’t be right.

She shot a glance back over her shoulder. Who _were_ these people? Strangers could be dangerous, around here - usually were. Iris wasn't sure she wanted to wait to find out just how bad their intentions were.

The guy had wandered away, muttering, but Zari was still smiling at Iris. “Sorry,” she said. “I— _we_ can phase through things.” She gave her brother a triumphant look, and clarified to Iris, “Like, pass through matter?” 

“Huh.” Iris was trying not to stare at the stranger. There was something about her. She had a light in her eyes that Iris hadn’t seen for a long time. Not since…

_Don’t think._

In a blur of lightning, Zari zipped in to join Iris at the door, her eyes taking in the bunker. Concern was shadowing her expression. Maybe she was figuring out the kind of hellscape she'd arrived in. Good. “Your locks aren’t the problem, I am. But… are you okay?” 

Her eyes saddened when Iris didn’t answer. There was no point in saying _no._ She wasn't going to tell these strangers that she hadn't been okay in a long time.

“I’m Iris,” she said reluctantly, remembering that introducing herself was the polite thing to do. She might have been making a fatal mistake, but the intruders didn't seem to be an _immediate_ threat. They did seem ignorant of where they were and the danger they were in, but Iris could handle that.

“My brother and I. We help people in trouble.” Zari's hand found its way to Iris’s shoulder. Iris didn't shrug it off. She felt her breath hitch at the human touch - something she hadn't felt in too long. “We’re a brother-sister crime fighting unit.”

That sounded utterly ridiculous to Iris. But there was something about Zari’s eyes when she said it. Sincere, like she really meant it.

Heroes... They never lasted long here. Iris should know.

_Don't think about him._

From the corner, where he was examining a pile of broken tech, Behrad called back, “Yeah! We just haven’t quite settled which one of us is doing the crime fighting, and which big sister should give up her stolen powers and get back on the comms.”

Zari rolled her eyes. Both of them seemed to do that a lot. “I’m not your personal Uhura, Behrad.” 

Even if Iris could admit it was nice to hear people's voices again, there wasn’t time for this crap. “Well, there’s no crime to be fought here. ARGUS have seen to that.” She put on a forced smile, turning back to her computer. “So you two can just go back to—” she waved a vague hand— wherever it is you’re from.” When Zari and Behrad didn’t move, Iris glared over her shoulder at them both. “Trust me. If either or both of you are metas, you want out of this city, and preferably this country, as soon as you can.” Under her breath, she muttered, “Before you end up like the other poor bastards.”

Behrad’s face was heavy with the same concern as his sister's, now. Great. That was all Iris needed - meddling dumbass heroic types who were just going to get themselves killed. “You wanna tell us about what’s going on?” Behrad asked, taking a step back towards Iris. “Why you’re locked in here? Zari’s right - if we can help...”

And Iris _snapped_. Spinning around in her chair, she yelled, “Do either of you have any sense of self-preservation? ‘Cause you’re gonna need it if you want to get out of here alive.” She got up, marching to the window, lifting the dusty curtain to show them the rubble outside. It was a risk, but she needed them out. Needed them safe. She pointed to the window, refusing to turn her own eyes towards the ARGUS tank parked outside, the shape of her nightmares. “That’s not just a battle zone, out there. It’s a graveyard.” She couldn’t have stopped talking now if she’d wanted to. “A friend of mine? He was a meta, like you two. He thought he could save the rest of them.” She dropped the curtain. “He couldn’t. They killed him, just for what he was. So by all means, if you two want to stick around, feel free. Just expect the same fate.”

Iris started walking. She kept going, pushing through a couple of makeshift curtain barriers, till she was on the other side of the warehouse, sliding down the wall of the store room, piled high with supplies, tech, and boxes of stuff she hadn’t looked at since Barry—

“Iris.” Zari caught up with her in a literal flash, dropping into a crouch beside her. God, that running thing was irritating. So was the way Zari was looking at her now. “Your friend who they... He wasn’t just your friend, was he?”

_Don’t think about him._

Zari was watching her, arms folded, waiting for an answer. Iris didn’t owe her anything… but it had been a long time since anyone had cared. It was kind of nice - even if it hurt like hell, too. She took a shaky breath. “He was also my husband. And a CSI, and a hero.” Struggling to her feet, she turned to the shelves behind her, shoving supplies around so she didn’t have to look at Zari’s face. “When ARGUS took over, he kept fighting to save people even when he shouldn’t have, and it was a long time ago now, and _God_ , why am I talking to you about this?”

“How have you stayed safe all this time?” Zari was murmuring.

Iris snorted under her breath. Might as well show these strangers what she was made of, just in case they were planning anything. 

Turning back around, Iris raised her hands in front of her.

A tornado picked up at her feet, tiny but blasting with potential power, growing in speed and strength until it filled half the room. It whipped Zari’s loose hair up around her face, while she laughed in delighted surprise. 

“That’s how,” Iris muttered, dropping her hand and letting the wind fall away.

A hush settled over the warehouse. Iris stared at the beaten warehouse floor, losing her battle with thoughts she hadn't let herself think in forever. Still, she didn't mind the quiet - she knew silence. It was all she’d had to keep her company for a very long time. 

Then, beside her, Zari’s eyebrows went up. “Hey, wanna help me and my brother figure out how I ended up with his powers?” Her expression softened slightly. “And then maybe… we can help.”

“I don’t need any help,” Iris muttered. “I cope fine on my own, thanks.” She meant it. She didn’t need interfering heroes around, putting their own lives at risk, no matter how beautiful and light some of them were. No matter how she was trying to fight the first painful stirrings of hope, low in her chest, that she'd felt for years.

In the gloomy room, a hand crept into hers. “You’re not alone anymore,” Zari insisted.

She clearly wasn’t giving up on this. Iris lifted her eyes to the dusty ceiling. “I suppose it would be interesting to solve a mystery.” She pointed a finger at Zari. “But then you leave, okay?”

Zari gave a little squeak, then schooled her grin into a very serious look. “Totally. That’s cool. We’ll leave you all alone, in this dirty warehouse. Yup.”

Somehow, as she felt herself smile for the first time in too long, Iris didn’t quite believe her.


End file.
